Commentary
Melania Trump Sues 'Daily Mail' For Libel, Again
- by Erik Sass , Staff Writer @eriksass1, February 8, 2017
The news media has been put on notice: Libel lawsuits are a favorite tactic of Donald Trump’s inner circle.
Close on the heels of a Maryland court’s dismissal of Melania Trump’s first libel lawsuit against the Daily Mail’s publisher, Mail Media Inc, her lawyers have filed a new suit against the company — about the same allegedly libelous statements in New York State.
The lawsuit seeks $150 million in damages, due to what the lawyers describe as lost business opportunities as a result of the Daily Mail’s libelous statement.
In an article published in August 2016, the Daily Mail repeated claims made by a Slovenian magazine that Melania Trump had worked as an escort in the earlier part of her career. She vehemently denied this and brought a libel lawsuit against Mail Media Inc in Maryland. (The Mailretracted the story after Trump’s first lawsuit).
However, Montgomery County Circuit Court Judge Sharon Burrell ruled that Maryland had no jurisdiction in the matter, despite Trump’s lawyers’ argument that some of the traffic to the Daily Mail’s Web site comes from the state.
The new libel lawsuit was filed in New York because Mail Media Inc. has corporate offices there.
In the lawsuit, Trump’s lawyers claim the allegedly libelous statements published by the Daily Mail caused her to miss out on “the unique, one-in-a-lifetime opportunity, as an extremely famous and well-known person, as well as a former professional model, brand spokesperson and successful businesswoman, to launch a broad-based commercial brand in multiple product categories, each of which could have garnered multi-million dollar business relationships for a multi-year term during which Plaintiff is one of the most photographed women in the world.”
According to the initial filing, the foregone business opportunity would have covered categories including “apparel, accessories, jewelry, cosmetics, hair care and fragrance.” But it doesn’t state how the claims published by the Daily Mail caused her to lose this opportunity.
Separately, Trump’s lawyers settled out of court with Maryland-based blogger Webster Tarpley for making the same libelous claims, which he also retracted; Tarpley reportedly agreed to pay a substantial sum to settle the case.
Trump’s legal team is led by Charles Harder, the lawyer who successfully sued Gawker Media on behalf of Hulk Hogan, eventually winning a $140 million settlement and forcing the online gossip publisher into bankruptcy.Afterwards, it was revealed that Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiel, a Trump ally, had secretly bankrolled Hogan’s lawsuit in revenge for Gawker “outing” him as a homosexual in 2007.
Erik Sass is editor of Publishers Daily. You can reach Erik at eriksass@gmail.com.
She's as big or maybe bigger ASS than her father!!!
Hillary should sue the living shit out of Fux News, et al.
Is Melania that hard up for cash that she has to stain the position of FLOTUS with a ridiculous lawsuit? What does it accomplish? The story is now out there, and whatever the ruling, it brings the story front and center to millions of people who didn't even know about it (including me!). Who would care if the story is true and M. was an escort? Not Trump supporters; they know they didn’t elect a couple with model morals and are fine with that; and the anti-Trumps have been in a snit since the election ended, so what’s one more outrage? And if the details aren’t true, what would it matter? Melania posed nude because she was a model, it was part of how she made a living and it’s not like Donald married the church lady. Escort or no escort—does a lawsuit change anything in the minds of the American people?
“Apparel, accessories, jewelry, cosmetics, hair care”—this was going to be Melania’s legacy as FLOTUS? And this goes on the list following Michelle Obama for nutrition and childhood obesity, Barbara and Laura Bush for literacy, Hillary Clinton for healthcare reform, Nancy Reagan for Just Say No to Drugs, and Rosalyn Carter as a mental health advocate? Gosh, Melania, email your predecessors and ask for advice on how to bring grace and dignity to the office of FLOTUS.
Shouldn't be too hard to defend.
Get the goose to stand up in front of the gander and just honk "alternative facts".
You mean Viktor Knavs, the car parts salesman? (I looked it up)
Charles, who is her father?